MILWAUKEE (CN) — A Jewish Republican organization on Thursday threw a cocktail mixer-style event at a private club in Milwaukee. The city is currently hosting the Republican National Convention, at which GOP officials have affirmed their steadfast commitment to Israel and have described nominee Donald Trump as the country’s best ally.
Unwavering support for Israel has long been a prominent issue for many Republicans, who view the Jewish state as an important ally in a hostile part of the world and a partner to combat Iran.
The Trump campaign has been vociferous in this respect, especially since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that killed nearly 1,200 and resulted in the taking of around 200 hostages.
Before what was billed as a “Salute to Pro-Israel Elected Officials” hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition, the opulent Wisconsin Club just west of the convention’s security perimeter was swept by explosive-sniffing canines. Private security wielded long guns as they patrolled the area.
In their remarks at Thursday’s event, Trump-aligned Republicans used Biblical, good-versus-evil language, casting the political right as the only ones fit to support and defend Israel, fight antisemitism and protect both countries from terrorist states like Iran.
As U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana put it: “There is really only one true pro-Israel party, and it’s the Republican Party.”
“There’s only one candidate who stands not only with Israel but with the Jewish-Americans of this country, and that’s Donald Trump,” former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker added. Governor Greg Abbott of Texas likewise said that “an existential threat to Israel is an existential threat to the United States of America.”
As they mingled beneath chandeliers in the club’s ballroom, many attendees seemed uninterested in the speakers on stage. Instead, they ate hors d’oeuvres, sipped drinks from the open bar and grabbed complimentary Trump swag, including red Trump-branded yarmulkes and signs reading “We Are Jews For Trump.”
Media access was limited, and few speakers faced the gaggle of press cordoned in the back of the room behind velvet ropes. One exception was Bernie Moreno, a candidate for U.S. Senate running against Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who blamed what he called the far-left for turning Israel into a partisan issue.
Another was Trump’s former CIA director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Referring to Hamas, the political and military movement that controls portions of the Israeli-occupied Gaza strip, Pompeo said “it is not possible for a terror organization to be in charge of a government.”
Whatever government exists in Gaza after the Israeli-Hamas war cannot be controlled by Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, as both are underwritten by the Islamic state of Iran, he said.
“People ask: ‘What does it look like when this is over?’ We have several thousand years of this not being over,” Pompeo said.
The RNC itself has featured many Jewish-American and Israeli speakers, merchants and attendees.
Appearing on stage during Wednesday’s evening session was Shabbos Kestenbaum, who sued Harvard University this year along with five other Jewish students over claims the university has permitted pervasive, intimidating antisemitism on campus.
Also taking the stage Wednesday night were the parents of 22-year-old Omer Neutra, a Jewish-American hostage who has been held by Hamas in Gaza since the attack in Israel last fall. The crowd gave them a strong showing of support, joining the parents in a chant of “Bring them home!”
Pro-Palestine protesters have also been present during the RNC. The group Coalition to March on the RNC, which sued the city over demonstration restrictions at the RNC and organized hundreds for a march through downtown Milwaukee during the convention’s first day on Monday, lists support for Palestine among its core issues.
Code Pink, a women-led organization in part focused on resisting “the violent Israeli occupation of Palestine,” has also been making its voice heard this week. About a dozen of the group’s members marched down Water Street to Red Arrow Park in downtown Milwaukee on Thursday.
One member, Nour Jaghama, was involved in physical altercation this week with U.S. Representative Derrick Van Orden, a Wisconsin Republican. The confrontation happened at the downtown Pfister Hotel before an RNC event.
Van Orden said he was suing the 24-year-old woman for “hip-checking” him in what he described as an act of political violence. Nonetheless, a local prosecutor dismissed the charges due to insufficient evidence.
Code Pink declined to comment to Courthouse News during its event at Red Arrow Park on Thursday. A handout the group provided praised the RNC in ironic terms, describing what it said were the party’s “friends in the weapons industry.”
“We want to thank the RNC for ensuring this year was a banner year for our shareholders,” the handout continued. “The continuation of the war in Ukraine and Israel’s genocide in Gaza have not made the world safer but have made our profits soar!”
Left-wing protesters have also made their voice heard at street protests at the RNC. But there was no mistaking where the Republican faithful in Milwaukee stood, including during the ritzy event at the Wisconsin Club.
Speakers like North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum accused Biden of abandoning the country’s responsibility to Israel and “negotiating on behalf of Hamas.” He claimed Biden policies of “maximum pressure on Israel” and “maximum appeasement of Iran” had contributed to the tragedies of last October.